The 100+ Best Books for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

Most business owners start with a particular acumen, whether it be an expertise in marketing, a knowledge of effective product design or a background in finance. Beyond that, business owners either need to partner with individuals with different strengths or get to studying!

Luckily, there are many prolific entrepreneurs and businesspeople who are more than willing to share their expertise.

You might even say there are too many business books to read! We took some time to categorize and narrow down what we believe to be the best business books.

We included the best marketing books, the best leadership books, the best finance books and much more.

We even included our staff favorites (because, hey, we are a small business, too!)

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Communication

A former hostage negotiator, Chris Voss prepares the reader for a series of life’s most challenging negotiations. Voss instructs the reader on how to take emotional intelligence and intuition in order to win the advantage in any negotiation.

This bestselling book gives its readers tools for communicating and negotiating in high stakes situations. Applicable to both personal and professional life, Crucial Conversations instructs readers on how to listen and communicate in all situations.

Negotiation coach Jim Camp takes his readers from his contrarian starting point to the point of mutual negotiation in any sort of situation. Working (seemingly) backwards allows the reader to understand and control their negotiations from the start.

In Negotiating the Impossible, Malhotra identifies and explains three approaches for negotiating stalemate situations. Using real-life negotiations, Malhotra illustrates how to implement these strategies.

Based on twenty years of research, Getting More concludes that people’s emotions and perceptions are far more valuable than pure logic. Introducing the ideas of win-win and BATNA, Getting More challenges age old conventional ideas in business and personal relations

Written for both CEOs and customer support agents, this book takes a look at how support should be done. It discusses topics like using social media for support, how to hire support personnel and much more.

Only 8% of companies are rated by customers as having extraordinary customer service. This book helps you ensure that your company is one of them. It focuses on how to build a support culture and delight customers at every turn.

Based on the Disney Institute, which has been teaching professionals for 25 years how to exceed their customers expectations, this book provides the story and techniques Disney uses to delight customers.

Entrepreneurship

This is a must read for any startup/business founder. Blank not only explores what makes some startups successful and others fail; he also gives actionable plans for how to make sure your company has the best chance to be successful.

In Blink, Gladwell explores how we think. Why are some people good decision makers while others are not? Why do some people have success following their instincts while others fail? It’s an essential read for anyone thinking of creating a company.

Richard Feynman is one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century and one of its most fascinating characters. Safe cracker, bongo drum player, and teacher of science, Feynman lived to pursue purely what was interesting and fun to him. A lot can be learned by the way he lived his life.

Benjamin Franklin was a writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist as well as a founding father of the United States. Not a bad resume. This biography takes you on the fascinating journey of his life. It’s hard to not feel inspired after reading this book.

Tony Robbins, famous for being a life and business strategist, he has also spent a lot of time interviewing the best financial minds in the world. Unshakeable is his follow up to Money: Master the Game (also fantastic). This book will teach you skills to help you create a financial plan so you can put your money to work for you and help you retire comfortably.

This book teaches you actionable strategies on how to save time and make more money. The author, Tim Ferriss, has become famous for teaching himself how to net a 5 figure income working just 4 hours a week.

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, takes you on a tour of the hard side of running a business. He discusses problems he has faced as a leader and how he overcame them. It’s invaluable for anyone looking to start a business.

From the well-known “For Dummies” series, this book walks you through the basics of financial management. It walks you step-by-step through things like cash flow management, budgeting and more. It also includes handy checklists and forms that makes it all easier.

Written by Steven Rogers, lecturer at Harvard Business School and winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, this book is a complete one-stop and in-depth resource for building your company’s financial foundation.

This book covers the variety of ways that businesses can raise money at each stage of growth. It also explores some less traditional means of raising capital like franchising, strategic licensing, and more.

Inspirational Stories

All is not happy tweets and flowers in Silicon Valley. Nick Bilton takes readers behind the scenes at the formative days of social media behemoth, Twitter. Learn how the four founders of Twitter survived betrayed friendships and high stakes power struggles.

Danny Meyer, the founder of Shake Shack, lays out his philosophy of “Enlightened Hospitality” that has lead to his great success in the brutal restaurant industry. No matter what industry you work in, Meyer has great insights on how to run a business while caring greatly for your employees and customers.

The Subtle Art… takes a different approach than many of the other books on this list. Manson helps his readers to cut through the noise (he calls it another four letter word) in order to live a good life.

This book, co-written by Neil Patel, guides the “underdogs” of the business world. Feeling like the odds are constantly stacked aganst you? Allow these three successful entrepreneurs to guide you through making small bets that will pay off, big time.

Conscious Capitalism, co-written by the founder of Whole Foods, explores the idea that capitalism can be good. Using examples of today’s most successful companies, Conscious Capitalism explores the four most important tenets of strong business.

In his bestselling book, Gladwell explores what makes high achievers different from the rest. Gladwell dives into stories of some of the most successful types and what similarities they have in their origin stories

Leadership

Everyone has had a bit of a crazy boss right? In this fantastically funny book, Stanley Bing explores the different types of crazies we typically encounter. There’s a lot to be learned, both as a manager and as one who is managed.

This book discusses findings from a study of more than 80,000 managers. First, Break All The Rules takes you into the mind of some of the world’s best managers. It also debunks a number of ideas that are typically conventional wisdom when it comes to management. It’s a must-read.

Simon Sinek explores what great leaders have in common and walks you through a framework that you can use in your own organization. The book contains great insights about leadership. Only knock against it is that it can be repetitive at times.

Superbosses focuses on how exceptional leaders are able to hire and nurture great talent. Everyone has a unique style, but the commonality is in how they are able to spot new talent inspire their employees to do their best work.

This is a fascinating book that explores why people fall for cons. The tie to leadership is that to properly lead, we need our employees to believe in us. It also teaches how con artists are experts at convincing someone to believe in them (even against their better judgement).

In his first book, Gary Vaynerchuk urges entrepreneurs to take their passion and make a living doing what they love to do. Drawing from his own experince building his family business, Gary lays out a recipe for success.

Prolific business writer Seth Godin asks marketers to tell their authentic story in order to connect with the world. Godin believes that marketers have perfected the power of the story and they need to use this to honestly speak to their customers.

In Made To Stick, brothers Dan and Chip Heath instruct readers on how to take a good idea and make it work (and last!). Made to Stick shows principles of the best ideas and how to apply them for success.

To be a successful marketing, you should be able to write well! Everybody Writes stresses the importance of clear and precise writing. Whether you are blogging, tweeting, or writing copy, your words are important.

Don’t you wish you could step into the brain of one of the world’s greatest known advertisers of all time? Well here is your chance. David Ogilvy’s On Advertising, published in 1985, has concepts that still hold true more than 30 years later.

This is the first book I read as a marketer. Shah and Halligan, the founders of Inbound, introduce and explain the concepts of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is a powerful and creative breed of marketing used by startups and giant companies alike.

Let Joe Pulizzi, one of the world’s leading content marketers, teach you how to cut through the noise and bad information out there. Epic Content Marketing will take you through a step-by-step process to create the most authentic and engaging content.

Growth hacking is how huge companies like Facebook, Airbnb and Twitter have built their businesses wuthout traditional advertising. Learn about growth hacking to implement a huge marketing effort on a modest budget.

Productivity

Versions of this book have been around and on book lists for over 25 years, which should give you an idea of how highly regarded this book is. 7 Habits… provides a methodology for life and work and is a must-read for anyone serious about becoming productive.

David Allen lays out a framework for taking control over your productivity. He posits that productivity is directly proportional to your ability to relax. Stress kills productivity. His framework helps you organize your list of to-do’s into one organized system so you can focus on getting things done.

This book cuts to the chase and gives you hacks, tips and tricks to get things done faster. The hacks range all over the place, but there’s tons of actionable advice that you can start using immediately.

The Checklist Manifesto explores the simple idea of a checklist and the impact that a good checklist has on a variety of industries. I can’t recommend this book enough. We use checklists at Proven for a variety of tasks to help reduce error and make us more productive. It’s a game changer.

This book offers a proven step-by-step process wannabe entrepreneurs can take to make the leap and become actual entrepreneurs. The book addresses both real world tactics and the more difficult psychological ones as well.

This book published by New York Times bestselling author Tim Ferriss explores the lessons learned by billionaries, innovators and icons in a variety of fields. It is meant to be read either start to finish or to serve as a handy manual that can be referenced when needed.

Social Media

Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick offer over 100 practical tips and tricks for using social media in all aspects of your business. Whether you are trying to increase your brand presence or atrract more followers, you will find several routes to take in which to use social media to achieve your goals.

Jason McDonald’s Workbook is used at Stanford to teach how to market a business on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. The purchase of this workbook will open you to free downloadable tools, worksheets and marketing videos. Use this Workbook to get a Stanford-level continuing studies education in Social Media.

Learn how to use visuals to strengthen your digital content. Visuals are proven to drive substantially more traffic than their word-based counterparts. With full-color examples from successful brands, learn how to strengthen your brand through visual content.

Taxes

From the well-known “for Dummies” series, this book serves as a great introduction to small business taxes. The book appeals to an absolute beginner and will walk you step by step through what needs to be done.

Written by Barbara Weltman, a well-regarded small business expert, the book offers a thorough and complete introduction to small business taxes. Updated every year, the book contains the most recent rules and regulations enabling you to complete your taxes and get back to business.

If you’re looking for a book that gives a good overview of taxes for small businesses, look no further. The book is less detailed than others in the category but will get you up to speed on general tax principles quickly.

Taxes and legal issues are usually topics people avoid like the plague but they are critically important if you own or run a small business. This book is designed to serve as a reference and teach you what you need to know about taxes and legal issues so you can get back to running your business.

J.K. Lassler’s book series includes quite a few books on taxes but this one focuses exclusively on deductions. If you’re looking for a complete list of deductions your company can take to save money on taxes, look no further.

From the popular “For Dummies” series, this book serves as a great resource for any small business owners trying to use quickbooks. Quickbooks is one of the most popular acounting programs used by small businesses around the world.

Salesforce is one of the most popular sales management tools in the world and is used by thousands of small businesses. This book explains why Salesforce is so valuable and walks you step by step through how to use it to improve your business.

Microsoft Excel is an incredibly powerful program that can help with a variety of business issues ranging from finance, to data collection, and more. This book is a comprehensive guide on how to use the program. Excel Bible will give you a complete understanding of how it works.

Microsoft Powerpoint is a powerful tool you can use to convey information to investors, employees or customers. But creating a great Powerpoint can be tricky, so that’s where this book comes in. It provides clear step-by-step directions on how to use Powerpoint effectively.

Final Thoughts

Those are our favorite small business books for all levels of business owner and entrepreneur. Remember, whether you are a novice or an expert in your field, there is always more to learn.

We know 100+ book seems like a lot, but there are even more great resources out there! As always, we love to keep our content as relevant and green as possible.

If you have a book on finance that is sorely missing from this list, tell us! If you read a leadership memoir that knocked your socks off, let us know in the comments. We want this to be a go-to list for of small business books for everyone!